EcoWaste Coalition is a public interest network of community, church, school, environmental and health groups pursuing sustainable solutions
to waste, climate change and chemical issues facing the Philippines and the world.

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26 September 2016

Environmental and Labor Activists Write to PM Trudeau to Push for the Re-Export of Illegal Canadian Trash

Environmental and labor rights advocates today wrote to Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and Ambassador Neil Reeder to appeal yet again for the
return of the controversy-ridden illegal garbage shipments to its origin.

The letter was sent via e-mail to the Office of the Prime Minister in Ottawa
City and the Embassy of Canada in Makati City and signed by officials of Ang
Nars Party-List, EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator
Alternatives, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation, Sentro ng mga
Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa and private individuals Raphael Lopez and
Elaine Lucero.

The above public interest groups and private individuals were “complainants-in-intervention”
to Criminal Case No. 14-311191 versus Canadian garbage importers Adelfa Eduardo
and Sherjun Saldon for violation of R.A. 6969 or the Toxic Substances and
Hazardous Nuclear Wastes Control Act.

The complainants wrote to Canada following a court order issued by the Manila
Regional Trial Court (Branch 1) instructing the return to Canada of 50
container vans of residual and hazardous trash that were illegally shipped to
the Philippines in the guise of “plastic scraps,”

They asked the Canadian government to support the court order issued by Judge
Tita Bughao Alisuag, which an inter-agency committee, meeting last September 5
agreed to pursue as reported by the Bureau of Customs. The Department of Justice, a member of the
committee, will file a motion for the execution of the court order in the case
hearing slated for September 30.

“We appeal to Prime Minister Trudeau to respect the court order and extend full
cooperation to the Duterte administration to ensure the immediate re-export of their
garbage back to Canada,” said Dr.
Leah Paquiz, former Ang Nars Party-List
Representative to the 16th Congress.

The complainants urged the Canadian government to
publicly withdraw the purported “local solution” announced by Ambassador Reeder
in May 2015, wherein “the (Canadian) garbage (will be) treated locally.”

“This ‘local solution’ is utterly distasteful and illegal as ruled by the court
and will only deepen the unhealed wounds of environmental injustice,” said Rene
Pineda of the EcoWaste Coalition.

In lieu of the so-called “local solution,” they urged
Prime Minister Trudeau to fulfill the “Canadian solution” he alluded to in
November 2015 on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in response to a question
raised by journalist Tina Monzon Palma regarding the garbage dumping scandal.

“The ‘Canadian solution,’ now more than ever, must
categorically include the re-importation of the illegal garbage shipments for
environmentally-sound disposal in Canada,” they said.

As stated by Judge Alisuag, “our country should not be made a trash bin by
(an)other country,” which “will violate equally important environmental laws
such as R.A. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and R.A. 9275 or
the Clean Water Act.”

As the aforementioned case is limited to only 50 of the
103 container vans of Canadian rubbish that illegally entered our ports, the
complainants asked Trudeau to voluntarily ensure the repatriation of all the
illegal garbage shipments.

“To avoid further embarrassment that would come with another legal decision, we
suggest that Canada should just take back all its garbage, including those not
covered by the said case,” they said.

The complainants also urged Canada to pay the Philippines
for all the costs incurred in dealing with your garbage, and to fix the legal
loopholes that allowed the unlawful export of Canadian trash to the
Philippines, including ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment.

"We want to put this garbage dumping behind us, so our
countries can turn over a new leaf in our bilateral relations. Your government can bring this controversy to
a close by doing what is just: take back your garbage and send no more trash
overseas,” they told Prime Minister Trudeau and Ambassador Reeder.

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is a public interest network of community, church, school, environmental and health groups pursuing sustainable solutions to waste, climate change and chemical issues facing the Philippines and the world.